Finding My Motivation When The Pep Talks Don’t Work

It’s another semi gloomy day here. Yesterday I wrote a post about what we had accomplished last week. While I was happy with what we had accomplished I was hoping that we had been able to get more done but I just didn’t have the gumption to do anything more over the weekend.

Then comes this morning. I laid in bed trying to find some motivation but it just wasn’t coming. I really felt pretty lazy today and the kids did too so I let them sleep in a bit. I crawled back in bed after getting dressed which didn’t help my motivation at all.

Finally after trying to give myself some pep talks about how much better I’d feel once I got a couple things done I managed to roll out of bed and head to the kitchen. I made a cup of coffee and fixed everyone some French Toast for breakfast.

Then it was off to start on chores. I really didn’t feel like doing any of those either. I pulled out my phone and started checking off my tasks on my FlyLady app.

One of my first tasks was to do my morning reading. I’m not sure where or when I got this book but it has been very helpful for various situations that I have dealt with lately.

Then it was off to the bedroom to fix the bed and gather the dirty laundry that had accumulated over the weekend while I was sick. Immediately I felt defeated because of how my room looked.

Even though I had spent the better part of last week in this room it really didn’t look like it this morning. I spent about 10 minutes and had the room tidied back up and put away EVERYTHING that didn’t belong, including the vacuum cleaner.

This past month’s missions have been a big effort to get all like items together in the same area. This goal is still a work in progress but it is coming along and we are seeing some great results. Just realizing this was a bit of a motivator to get me up and going.

With a load of laundry in the wash I set about getting to the other items on the list like cleaning the bathroom. Boy did it need a good cleaning! I also filled the oil diffusers and that in itself improved a lot. By this time it was almost time for lunch which was some leftover hamburgers and pasta salad from yesterday.

I went ahead and put some chicken thighs and Italian dressing in the crockpot for dinner later. I pulled out a box of Success Quinoa I had received as a trial and pulled out some frozen rolls so they could rise. With dinner taken care of I set about taking care of some of the weekly and monthly tasks on my list like wiping out the fridge and microwave and then cleaning the AC filters.

My morning was gone and my list still had quite a bit of tasks to complete so I finished the most important ones and then off to tackle a couple of missions in the Main Room.

I still wasn’t completely motivated to tackle any new missions though so I took a quick break. The kids and I stepped out to the porch to feed the fish. We really do enjoy watching the fish and the turtles come up to nibble on the bread. After a few minutes I headed out to the wash shed to swap a load of laundry and then the rain started again.

Just a quick break was what I needed before starting in the Main Room.Instead of looking at the whole room, which serves as a living room/dining room/home school area/and more, I am going to break it down into smaller sections like I did with the kitchen. Hopefully that will help me get this room organized and more functional for us.

I also know that our upcoming project will help out with the way this room functions as well so just thinking about that does give me a little bit of the motivation I am so desperately needing. Check back in later this week for a review of the progress we’ve made and some of the activities we’ve done this week.

Praying you all have a blessed week!

My self pep talks may not have worked as well as I’d hoped but I did get up and get started. I really don’t know why this decluttering/cleaning has been so hard for me lately but I’m determined to get it done.

If something just doesn’t seem to motivate you then find a way to make it easier. Once you get started then you’ll feel better about finishing the task at hand.

Cabin Fever

WARNING: This post is probably one of my whiniest, depressing, and just gloomy posts ever!

I think we’ve all heard of Cabin Fever but maybe you haven’t really ever had to deal with it. I know the term gets thrown around here and there but actually experiencing it is no fun at all.  It is described as:

cab·in fe·ver

noun

NORTH AMERICANinformal
noun: cabin fever
  1. irritability, listlessness, and similar symptoms resulting from long confinement or isolation indoors during the winter.

Well, this past week and weekend I have had a horrible case of it even though winter has passed. (I’ve also come down with a bit of a cold after taking the boys to the doctor and I haven’t felt very well.) It has been raining, raining, and raining like crazy and we’ve been stuck in the house quite a bit.

Then when we do go out we are usually headed to a dance and dodging mud puddles with dance shoes and crinolines on is not a whole lot of fun.  (I don’t really know why it has been so bad right now as I’ve spent many a week or more snowed in when we lived up north and I don’t ever remember dealing with Cabin Fever to this extreme.) Continue reading “Cabin Fever”

Bathroom And Extra Room Kleaning Missions Weekly Wrap Up

Hey everybody! I haven’t been doing daily updates this week as we haven’t done a whole lot of major cleaning missions at all. I overdid it last week and had to call in reinforcements just to get a few projects tackled this week.

Luckily Ms. Olivia was free for a couple of days and she came to stay with us. The kids loved having big sister back home and she really did help out quite a bit.

This week has been a very dreary week with rain and storms almost everyday. Not great for getting motivated to work but perfect for sleeping. The good side is that we haven’t had to water the garden at all!

This week was also a pantry challenge week for us and since we just finished organizing our pantry last week we had a pretty good idea of what needed to be used up. Continue reading “Bathroom And Extra Room Kleaning Missions Weekly Wrap Up”

Mother’s Day Weekend Wrap Up

Oh my! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We did here but it has left me pretty much exhausted from all the fun. Continue reading “Mother’s Day Weekend Wrap Up”

Kitchen Kleaning Friday Mission: Final Touches

SO sorry guys! This was set to publish last week but for some reason it didn’t… been having that issue a lot lately so I’m not sure if it is with my internet or what but here it is.

As you know everything have been on a mission to get this little house on the pond organized. Last month was the bathroom and this week our main focus has been in n the kitchen. Our kitchen is small but it has many functions and we’ve been working hard to make it work better for us.

We’ve learned a lot of lessons this week. We’ve learned that is really is nice to be organized and when everything has a place life is much easier and so much less frustrating. We’ve also learned that our family can work very well together to achieve our goals. This is amazing as we’ve been having a few issues with our ‘tweenager’ who normally doesn’t want to help out at all. This week she has been asking for tasks to do!

I have shown the kids time management skills as well as organizational lessons. They are also learning to be more responsible with the exception of pencil sharpeners.

We’ve also had a lot of fun rearranging things and talking about random ideas that pop in our heads. We’ve worked together to pick out items for the kitchen and came up with ideas for decorating the rest of the house too. Hopefully by incorporating everyone into the planning process it will pull everyone together and help us to reach our goals together.

We have an art project in mind for the kitchen window so hopefully we will be posting pics of that soon!

This week has been a wonderful week. We have accomplished so much more than what I had expected.